Ian Anderson was born the youngest of three siblings. His father, James Anderson, ran the RSA Boiler Fluid Company[2] in East Port, Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland. Anderson spent the first part of his childhood in Edinburgh, Scotland. He was influenced by his father's big band and jazzrecords and the emergence of rock music, though disenchanted with the "show biz" style of early American rock and roll stars like Elvis Presley.[3]

His family moved to Blackpool, Lancashire, England, in 1959, where he gained a traditional education at Blackpool Grammar School.[4] In a recent interview, Anderson stated that he was asked to leave Grammar School for refusing to submit to corporal punishment (still permitted at that time) for some serious infraction.[5] He went on to study fine art at Blackpool College of Art from 1964 to 1966.

While a teenager, Anderson took a job as a sales assistant at Lewis's department store in Blackpool, then as a vendor on a news stand. He later said it was reading copies of Melody Maker and the New Musical Express during his lunch breaks that gave him the inspiration to play in a band.[citation needed]

In 1963, he formed The Blades from among school friends: Barriemore Barlow (drums), John Evan (keyboards), Jeffrey Hammond (bass) and Michael Stephens (guitar). This was a soul and blues band, with Anderson on vocals and harmonica – he had yet to take up the flute.

In late 1967, Anderson was still holding down a day job, namely cleaning the Ritz Cinema in Luton, including the toilets, in the mornings, "which took me half the day" he said in a later interview. He took an old, chipped urinal from the cinema storeroom and had it for a time after leaving the job. It was not, however, the urinal which "was bolted to the side of John Evan's Hammond organ on stage" and figured in early 1970s Tull performances.[6]

At this time Anderson abandoned his ambition to play electric guitar, allegedly because he felt he would never be "as good as Eric Clapton". As he himself tells it in the introduction to the video Live at the Isle of Wight, he traded his electric guitar in for a flute which, after some weeks of practice, he found he could play fairly well in a rock and blues style. According to the sleeve notes for the first Tull album, This Was (1968), he had been playing the flute only a few months when the album was recorded. His guitar practice did not go to waste either, as he continued to play acoustic guitar, using it as a melodic and rhythmic instrument. As his career progressed, he added soprano saxophone, mandolin, keyboards and other instruments to his arsenal.

His tendency to stand on one leg while playing the flute came about by accident, as he had been inclined to stand on one leg while playing the harmonica, holding the microphone stand for balance. Anderson was known for his famous one-legged flute stance, and was once referred to as a "deranged flamingo".[7] This stance is on many album covers of Jethro Tull. During a long stint at the Marquee Club, a journalist described him, wrongly, as standing on one leg to play the flute.[citation needed] He decided to live up to the reputation, albeit with some difficulty. His early attempts are visible in The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus (1968) film appearance of Jethro Tull. This was referenced in the facetious liner notes for Thick as a Brick in a quote about "the one-legged pop flautist, Ian Anderson."

Anderson already wished to start a solo career in 1980, when Jethro Tull was going to suffer a hiatus, occasioned by John Glascock's death. The album he wrote with this intent (the A album) had the participation of Martin Barre and Dave Pegg. Chrysalis preferred to release the album by the Jethro Tull name - occasioning the split of the band.

In the 1990s he began working with simple bamboo flutes. He uses techniques such as over-blowing and hole-shading to produce note-slurring and other expressive techniques on this otherwise simple instrument. In the 1990s and 2000s, Anderson's song lyrics often capture 'snapshots' of his daily life ("Old Black Cat", "Rocks on the Road").[citation needed]

In 1995, Anderson released his second solo album, Divinities: Twelve Dances with God, an instrumental work composed of twelve flute-heavy pieces pursuing varied themes with an underlying motif. The album was recorded with Jethro Tull keyboard player Andrew Giddings and orchestral musicians. Anderson released two further song-based solo albums, The Secret Language of Birds in 2000 and Rupi's Dance in 2003.

In 2003, Anderson recorded a composition called "Griminelli's Lament", in honour of his friend, the Italian flautist Andrea Griminelli.

A sequel to Thick as a Brick (1972), entitled Thick as a Brick 2 or TAAB2, was released on 3 April 2012. It is billed as being performed by Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson instead of being a Tull album proper. Anderson toured performing both albums in their entirety. A trailer for TAAB2 was posted on YouTube.[8]

Anderson released a new album, Homo Erraticus, in May 2014. He describes it as a progressive rock concept album blending rock, folk, and metal music. Peaking at No. 14 in the UK Albums Chart it was his most successful ever solo album.

From 1970 to 1974, Anderson was married to Jennie Franks, a photographer who is credited with some of the lyrics to the first couple of verses of the song "Aqualung".[16]

Anderson married Shona Learoyd in 1976, described by Rolling Stone magazine as a "beautiful convent-educated daughter of a wealthy wool manufacturer".[17] She had studied ballet for 10 years, though Anderson met her when she was working as a press officer at Jethro Tull's then record-label Chrysalis Records. She later became involved with the band's on-stage special effects.

The couple have lived in a 16th-century redbrick farmhouse on the 500-acre (2.0 km2) Pophleys Estate in Radnage, England, in Kilmarie House on their Strathaird Estate on the Isle of Skye in Scotland, as well as a short time in Montreux, Switzerland. They currently live in Wiltshire, England and have a house again in Switzerland, near Montreux. They have two children: James Duncan Anderson, also a musician; and Gael, who works in the film industry and is married to actor Andrew Lincoln, star of the US TV drama series The Walking Dead.[18]

Among his interests Anderson lists protecting wild cats, especially those that have been rescued from harsh captivity; cameras, chiefly Leicas; Indian cuisine – he has written a beginner's guide, thus far published only on the internet.[20]

Anderson describes himself as being "somewhere between Deist and Pantheist" religiously, according to his foreword to the pamphlet for his 2006 St. Brides charity concerts for the homeless.[21]

Anderson has owned several salmon farms in the UK. His Strathaird concern,[22] based on his estate on the Isle of Skye was worth £10.7 million in the late 1990s, when parts of it began to be sold off. He currently owns a group of companies, which reported a gross profit of £1.8 million in 2004,[dated info] when the Sunday Herald newspaper reported:

He and his wife Shona, the sole shareholders and directors, shared a £500,000 dividend and emoluments, excluding pension contributions, of £850,954. A modest pre-tax loss of £5,806 was booked for the year but the balance sheet shows shareholders' funds stand at £3.2m. Income included a payment of £209,517 following one of the rock group's regular cheques on its flow of royalties.[23]